The primary objective of the Vadose Zone Transport Field Study is to obtain hydrologic, geophysical, and geochemical data from controlled field studies to reduce the uncertainty in vadose-zone conceptual models and to facilitate the calibration of numerical models for water flow and contaminant transport through Hanford's heterogeneous vadose zone. A secondary objective is to evaluate advanced, cost-effective characterization methods with the potential to assess changing conditions in the vadose zone, particularly as surrogates of currently undetectable high-risk contaminants. The study is designed to assure the measurement of flow-and-transport properties in the same soil volume, a pre-requisite for developing techniques for extrapolating parameters derived from investigations at clean representative sites to contaminated sites with minimal characterization.

Application of two electrical resistivity methods at the Hanford Site Mock Tank during 2002, indicate the viability of the methods as possible leak-detection tools for SST retrieval operations. Electrical Resistivity Tomography and High-Resolution Resistivity were used over a 109-day period to detect leakage of a waste simulant beneath the tank. The results of the test indicate that both of these two methods, and subset methods may be applicable to SST leak detection.

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